By IANS,
Bangalore : India’s leading biotechnology group Biocon Ltd posted a net profit of Rs.4.64 billion ($116 million) for 2007-08, registering a whopping 132 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth over the previous fiscal (2006-07) figure of Rs.2 billion.
Income from sales increased to Rs.10.5 billion in the fiscal from Rs 9.86 billion in 2006-07, registering a modest seven percent YoY growth, the company said in a statement here Tuesday.
Other income shot up by nine times to Rs.360 million from Rs.40 million. Consolidated revenue for the group increased to Rs.10.9 billion from Rs.9.9 billion, registering 10 percent YoY growth.
For the fourth quarter (January-March), consolidated net profit increased to Rs.653 million from Rs.607 million in the same period of previous fiscal, posting 7.6 percent YoY growth.
Consolidated income from sales for the quarter, however, remained flat at Rs.2.8 billion.
Biocon group consists of wholly-owned subsidiaries Syngene International Ltd and Clinigene International Ltd and its 51 percent joint venture Biocon Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.
As standalone, the parent company posted net profit of Rs.4.35 billion for fiscal 2008 against Rs.1.58 billion in fiscal 2007, registering a whopping 175 percent YoY growth. Income from sales grew marginally to Rs.9.3 billion from Rs.8.6 billion, posting an eight percent growth.
For the fourth quarter (Q4), net profit grew by 31 percent to Rs.620 million from Rs.473 million in the same quarter of previous fiscal. Income from sales, however, declined by 19 percent YoY to Rs.2.37 billion from Rs.2.41 billion in the same quarter year ago.
Earnings per share (EPS) increased by 13 percent YoY to Rs.22.5 from Rs.20 a year ago. Operating margin also grew by two percent to 31 percent for the entire fiscal.
Commenting on the results, Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told reporters later that the Biotech group had delivered the highest profit since it went public in March 2004 and the overall performance during fiscal 2008 was more than its expectations.
“We have a strong balance sheet, which we will use for strategic acquisitions and investments. The recent acquisition of 70 percent equity stake in German firm AxiCorp GmbH for euro 30 million is a significant move, providing us access to the key European market,” Shaw said.
AxiCorp is a specialised marketing and distribution company established in 2002 by a group of industry experts to address the lucrative generics and parallel distribution market in Germany and Europe.